Alien life in Cosmos: Scientists say discovering it is ‘only a matter of time’

Once upon a time most astronomers used to ponder whether there is life elsewhere in the Universe. That’s not the case now. Now question on minds of many of them is instead: when will we find it? Many are hopeful of detecting life signs on a distant world within our lifetimes – perhaps in the next few years. And one particular scientist, leading a mission to Jupiter, goes to the extent of saying it would be “surprising” if life is not found on any one of the planet’s icy moons.

Nasa’s JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) recently detected tantalizing hints of life on a planet out of our Solar System – and it has some more worlds in its sights. Plentiful missions that are either under way or about to start mark a new space race for the biggest astral discovery of all time. “We live in an infinite Universe, with infinite stars and planets. And it’s been obvious to many of us that we can’t be the only intelligent life out there,” says Prof Catherine Heymans (Scotland’s Astronomer Royal). “We now have the technology and the capability to answer the question of whether we are alone in the cosmos.”

Telescopes can now study the atmospheres of planets orbiting faraway stars, looking for chemicals that – on our planet Earth at least – can be produced only and only by living organisms. The first flicker of such a discovery came when the probable sign of a gas that, on Earth, is produced by simple marine organisms was detected in the atmosphere of a planet named K2-18b (which is 120 light years away). The planet is placed in what astronomers call ”the Goldilocks zone’ – the right distance away from its star for the surface temperature to be neither too cold nor too hot, but just right for water to be present in liquid form, which is essential to support life.

The team hopes to know in a year’s time whether the tantalizing hints are confirmed or have withered away. Prof Nikku Madhusudhan of the Institute of Astronomy (IoA) at Cambridge University, who led the study, opined that if the hints are confirmed “it would radically change the way we think about the search for life”. “If we find signs of life on the very first planet we study, it will raise the possibility that life is common in the Universe.”